A young boy dropped the handle of a retractable leash, which hit the dog in the head, frightening and injuring the dog.

The clasp broke, snapped back and hit a young girl in the eye resulting in a detached retina.

A retractable leash broke and the dog escaped, was hit by a car and injured.

A dog was at the end of a retractable leash, chased a rabbit into the road, was hit by a car and killed.

A cyclist walking his dog on a retractable leash was pulled into traffic when the dog chased a squirrel knocking the cyclist off his bike. Both the cyclist and dog were injured.​

A dog at the end of a retractable leash was hit by a car and killed when a driver backed out of her driveway.

These highlight just a few of the many dangers associated with these leashes. The line of the retractable leash has become wrapped around bikes, other objects, dogs and people resulting in deep lacerations, amputations and/or broken bones. There was also an incident where a dog ran into an elevator ahead of the owner just before the door closed resulting in the dog being strangled.

Graphic videos. Play at own risk.

One of the problems with these leashes is that they are available for next to nothing at dollar stores but many are cheaply made. These leashes are prone to breakage at the clasp, where the line attaches inside the plastic casing, the line itself, the plastic casing and the locking and retractable mechanisms. When a leash of any kind breaks, the dog is not safe.

Retractable leashes are extremely dangerous when used with choke chains, pinch collars or head halters because if the dog runs ahead and hits the end of the leash, the handler has no control over the intensity of the jolt to the dog’s head or neck.

If the plastic casing is dropped, the dog can be frightened by the handle “chasing it” causing it to run away, become lost, injured or killed. And if a dog encounters another dog or animal at the end of the leash, because the handler is not close enough to the dog to control it, it can result in bites and fights.

The list of risks, concerns, injuries and deaths is long making it clear that the risks far outweigh the benefits and as result we do not allow them in our training classes, discourage their use, will not recommend them to our clients and will never use one on our own dogs. Due to these risks, IPDTA has deemed retractable leashes to be unacceptable due to potential for misuse, abuse and/or malfunction in the hands of the average handler resulting in a high risk of accidents, injury and/or death.

We love our dogs and make all of our decisions based on risk verses reward. Because the risks associated with retractable leashes are so high, we will never recommend or use them.

​We'll give credit where credit is due. The city of Toronto did a good thing by prohibiting choke collars, choke chains and prong/spike collars but did they fall short of the mark? Although this is a fantastic first step to improving rights for our dogs, the by-law notably excluded the banning of shock equipment.

Shock collars work short-term because they hurt and scare the dog but in the long run, the risk of long-lasting emotional and psychological damage far outweighs any gains one would expect to achieve.

Modern studies have proven that dogs are thinking and feeling, emotional animals. In fact, dogs are equipped with the same five basic emotions that a human baby is born with. It's also been proven that at full physical, intellectual and emotional maturity, dogs have the intelligence of a three to four year old child.

Would you strap a shock collar on your baby or toddler and zap them every time they did something you deemed wrong? We don't barbarically shock our children into subservience, instead we teach them to make correct choices. So why would someone shock a dog that has the emotional equivalent of a toddler?

Aversive and compulsion tools such as choke chains, prong collars and shock equipment (including e-fencing) are a cop out for those who do not wish to put the time in to train their dog in a fair and humane way. After all, don't we all want loyal trusting companions as opposed to brow beaten, subservient slaves?

Here’s hoping that other cities follow Toronto’s lead and that they include shock equipment in the list of tools to ban.